


Good Together

by KakumeiNoHi



Series: The Stories of Winter and her Partner [4]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Atlas Academy, Canon Universe, F/F, RWBY - Freeform, Winter Schnee - Freeform, a tiny bit of rwby fluff, atlas academy initiation headcanon, rwby canon universe, some atlas academy headcanons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:34:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26443507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KakumeiNoHi/pseuds/KakumeiNoHi
Summary: A 4th mid-length story expanding on the other ones..........„This looks super sketchy.“Cassie's eyes were narrowed and her ears pulled back. Winter couldn't help but notice how “suspicion” was undoubtedly written all over her. From what very little time she had spent with her new partner Winter had realized that she seemed like the type of person who was relatively easy to read.Winter preferred that kind of person, she's already had enough pretense and phoniness in her life.Winter couldn't help but to think about how strange it was for her to be standing in an abandoned dust mine with a stranger who she had met not too long ago and still feel more at ease with herself than she had ever felt at Schnee Manor.They had been walking inside of the mine for some time, when they found a small railway line. It was presumably used to transport tools and utensils and they had decided they would follow it in hopes that it would lead them to one of the caches they were required to find during the Atlas Academy initiation.“Well 'sketchy' isn't a word I would use, but I agree...still thisis definitelya right spot.”
Relationships: Winter Schnee/Original Female Character(s)
Series: The Stories of Winter and her Partner [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1914799
Kudos: 16





	Good Together

**Author's Note:**

> I thought about tieing this one into another story I'm still writing at the moment, but since it turned a bit longer I thought it might as well make for a good stand alone :)

„This looks super sketchy.“

Cassie's eyes were narrowed and her ears pulled back. Winter couldn't help but notice how “suspicion” was undoubtedly written all over her. From what very little time she had spent with her new partner Winter had realized that she seemed like the type of person who was relatively easy to read.

Winter preferred that kind of person, she's already had enough pretense and phoniness in her life. In fact part of why she had come to Atlas Academy in the first place was so that she no longer had to endure a certain affected person in her otherwise immediate proximity.  
Winter couldn't help but to think about how strange it was for her to be standing in an abandoned dust mine with a stranger who she had met not too long ago and still feel more at ease with herself than she had ever felt at Schnee Manor.

They had been walking inside of the mine for some time, when they found a small railway line. It was presumably used to transport tools and utensils and they had decided they would follow it in hopes that it would lead them to one of the caches they were required to find during the Atlas Academy initiation.

It turned out the railway was at some point part of a bridge that connected two of the upper levels of the dust mine. Erosion however had taken a toll on both the bridge and railway which is why Winter and Cassie were now standing at the edge of the broken line and looking down into what must have been one of the larger mining caves.

“Well 'sketchy' isn't a word I would use, but I agree...still this _is definitely_ a right spot.”

Winter looked at her partner, who was on one knee observing the surroundings and lowered herself next to her. They were on the same page but they still had to decide on what to do next.

In the middle of the cave below was indeed one of the academy caches. How did they know? Not only was the cave completely illuminated unlike the rest of the mine, but there was also the academy's emblem on the containers's lid. There was _also_ a giant academy banner sticking next to it.

“Yeah, but I still feel a little bit....well, suspicious for once but also...insulted? I mean it smells a lot like trap but they also expect us to be stupid enough to go for it...”

“So, are you going to back down, Grey?” Winter decided to goad her a little to see if she could take what she dishes out.

“Oh, never.” Cassie flashed the same cocky grin Winter had seen when she jumped out of the airplane first. “We're just not going to be stupid about it, right?“

Winter smiled. _Good_. Still, how were they going to go on about this?

“Say, your semblance,...” Winter asked. “Your _Fading_....can you only fade yourself?”

“Hmmm....technically no, I can take one other person, but it'd have to be someone I'm close with and basically already accustomed to...”

And they, they barely know each other. Winter felt a sting in her chest. Why was she feeling a little hurt hearing this?

“I could just get that cache though, unless it's seriously bolted down, but what were you thinking though?”

“No, I don't think it could be grabbed that easily, besides we only really need what's inside.”  
Actually it really might have been easy to grab and carry, but Winter didn't like the idea of just standing there and doing nothing while her partner secured the cache. She didn't however mention this.

“I was thinking that your semblance might be a good way to get us out of harms way just in case, but I guess that won't work then...”

“Oh, uhm, well, it's not a bad idea in general, but we'd have to practice that first. Also the only other person I can currently fade with me would get really woozy in the beginning, so...” For somebody who had no trouble speaking up so far, Cassie seemed almost timid while explaining.

“I see...” Winter did notice however that she talked about only one other person. Who was this person she was very close to?  
Judging by her behavior so far her new partner seemed to be like the type of person who wouldn't have trouble making a lot of friends. She was open and friendly, a little it too touchy for Winter's taste, but surely she could sway anybody to her side if she wanted.  
Unlike Winter herself, who came of as cold, hard and difficult to talk to, her partner seemed to have a very casual and approachable air around her. Winter wanted to know more about this person who seemed so much different than her, but who had still approached her and became her partner nonetheless.  
Still Winter didn't dare asking more questions. She shook her head slightly. This wasn't the time. They had a task to do and Winter decided to simply take action.

“Let's just carefully get closer for now. Be on the defense.” Winter drew one of her swords with her right and conjured two rows of glyphs side by side going down.

“Righty-o.” Her partner got up, she took her weapon off her lower back. Winter was puzzled, when she didn't unfold it however.

“I can get on these too, right?” she asked, but didn't even wait for Winter to answer to hop on top of a glyph. _She surely was trusting_ was all Winter could think while she hopped on the glyph next to her and they made their way down to the cache.

They had reached the bottom quickly and were now standing right in front of the cache. Nothing happened.

“Something might happen the moment we open it.” It really couldn't be this easy Winter thought.

“Yeah, but hold on. There's something I want to try, now that we're in front of it.” Cassie chuckled to herself.

“What's that?” Winter gave her partner a puzzled and suspicious look. “Why didn't you say so earlier?”

“Because it would have been more finicky to do from afar.”

Cassie had raised her empty hand and Winter watched it disintegrate into black haze and disperse.  
Different from what she had seen so far, this time around her partner's semblance really looked like she was just fading away.  
She must have noticed the puzzled look on Winter's face.

“Ah, normally I do this quickly, so nobody notices how it actually looks like...I'm sorry if it's kinda weird.” She smiled timidly.

“No, no, that's not it.” Winter slightly waved her hand at her partner. “I was just surprised, because it looked different than before, that's all. Anyway what are you doing?”  
She really was only surprised, still Winter felt the need to try and change the subject.

“Ah, right now? Hold on....” Cassie's expression changed and she had a sly look on her face, Winter narrowed her eyes at her.

“Oh, don't look at me like that...see?” Her hand had reappeared but it wasn't empty. She was holding what looked like a navigation pad and a data stick.

“Turns out that cache is basically hollow, so I could just put my hand in and grab whatever was inside.”  
She smiled like a child who had just done something mischievous and gotten away with it.  
“They only said _Get what's inside_ , didn't they? You were also thinking something might happen if we open it, right? So we don't open it.”

Winter placed her hand on her brow. “Why does this feel like you just broke the system....?”

“Because I just did.” She put her elbow on top Winter's shoulder to lean on her. Winter couldn't really deny how ingenious the idea was and she stepped to the side to get her partner off of her. Why does she have to get this close all the time?

“Let's get out of here.”

The words had just left Winter's mouth when a sudden overwhelming blaring of a siren started. The sound was deafening even to Winter, she couldn't imagine how much it would effect her partner whose hearing was even more sensitive than hers. By her side her partner was holding her ears in pain. She suddenly kicked the cache, however both her foot and the container disappeared, her foot reappeared alone and it was silent again.

Winter managed to get a hold of herself and she looked at her partner who was still slightly disoriented. She tried to put her hand on her shoulder to steady her, but got waved off.

“I'm fine, just give me a second.” Cassie straightened herself up. “But we have to leave. Now.”

She was right. The sound was sure to attract whatever kinds of Grimm had been hiding in the caves, Grimm they had managed to avoid so far.

They could already feel the ground rumbling lightly.

“It might be too late to leave...” Winter was now holding both of her swords. “I figured it couldn't be that easy. Where did the container go by the way?”

“The mine entrance, I think. First place I could think of. Really, I just wanted the noise gone...”

“Well, the sound certainly stopped.”

“You know, it sure feels like this would have happened no matter what we did.” Cassie tightened her grip around her weapon.

“Agreed.” Winter looked to her partner and she saw her raise her hand.

With a simple flick of her wrist her weapon unfolded. It was a large black and silver colored halberd. Compared to most halberds Winter had seen parts of this one's shaft looked slightly thicker. The axe blade also looked heavier, all of which suggested that there might be more to it. But she had no time to wonder about that.

The ground was breaking apart and dozens of Centinels were crawling out.

\-------------

Winter inhaled. They had done it. They had taken out every wave of Grimm that had come at them. Mid-fight the Centinels were joined by small Nevermores and a swarm of Death Stalkers. Both had been more of a nuisance and distraction than anything, but Winter thought that she might use the Nevermores herself in the future.  
And so she raised her right arm to summon a large glyph.  
She concentrated and remembered how they had moved together, she took a deep breath and she watched white small Nevermores rise up and fly in a circle within her glyph. She still would have to figure out how to effectively use them, but for now she was satisfied. She put her swords back on her hips.

“What, no Death Stalkers or Centinels?”

Her partner was sitting on the floor next to where Winter was standing. During the fight she had split her halberd into a pair of bladed tonfas which she was now leaning on. Winter had also seen her fold these into handguns at some point to fire shots at the flying Nevermores.

“Not a fan of creepy crawlers then? How girly of you.” Cassie giggled in amusement.

Winter stayed silent. She avoided directly looking at her.

“What? Really?” Cassie laughed out loud. “I was only joking, but do you really dislike them _that_ much?”

“Stop talking.”

“Nevermores really _are_ much prettier, I agree.”

Winter could feel heat rising up to her face. Her partner had gotten up, she put her weapons back together and behind her back.  
She walked up to Winter to put an arm around her shoulder and squeezed her slightly.

“Hey, there's nothing wrong with you having preferences. I was teasing earlier, but _this_ I mean, okay?”

Winter didn't push her off. She looked to the side. _Not everybody would agree with that._ Anger started to boil inside of her and clouding her vision when she suddenly felt her cheek being pulled slightly.

“Come on, let's get out of this deathtrap. We did good and I need some fresh air.”

Her partner had let go of her shoulder and taken her hand.

“I'll lead you through the dark again.”


End file.
